Former Onondaga County Courthouse custodian admits payroll padding

Syracuse, NY - A former Onondaga County Courthouse custodial supervisor accused of orchestrating a payroll-padding scheme with three other employees admitted his guilt today.

Matthew Sindoni Jr., 53, of 717 Kirkpatrick St., pleaded guilty before state Supreme Court Justice John Brunetti to a felony count of first-degree falsifying business records and a misdemeanor count of petit larceny. He was promised a three-year conditional discharge for a sentence although Assistant District Attorney Robert DeMarco told Brunetti the prosecution wanted some jail time because Sindoni had been in a supervisory position.

Sindoni entered the guilty plea after Brunetti concluded there was sufficient evidence presented to a grand jury to support the charges. Brunetti set sentencing for June 19 and said Sindoni may be required to pay $354 in restitution.

In pleading guilty, Sindoni admitted that he falsified county business records last June and July to conceal improper pay or comp-time benefits for himself or co-workers. At the time of Sindoni's arrest last August, authorities said he allowed three courthouse custodians to leave work early, used their county-issued Employee Swipe Cards to clock them out of work later and used his own card to indicate he was supervising work that was not being done.

The three co-defendants - James Racona, 47, of Clay and Jerome Bowens, 45, and Louis Hill, 65, both of Syracuse - have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor falsifying business records charges in City Court and been sentenced to one-year conditional discharges, according to DeMarco.

Outside court, defense lawyer Ronald Pelligra questioned the prosecution's hard-line position against his client and Sindoni said he lost his job and ended up with a felony conviction because of "15 hours of comp time."